Thursday 22 Mar 2012

Thursday Reading: Philippians 2:4-8

Key Verse: Philippians 2:4
4  Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Devotion:
You may have guessed that I think that this is one of the most important parts of life to me... But then I have a wonderful Counsellor and King who has taught me well and one whom I try to follow. I know that I get things wrong and I know that I have done many things wrong in the past, but it is not to the past that I look but into the future that I look. The past has gone; the future is in front of us. That does not mean we just forget about the past because without it we would not have an example – so let us not cast aside the past, just not try to dwell on it.

Dwelling on our past mistakes and wrongs will do nothing to encourage us along our walk with Christ. But being able to see the past and recognise all the wonderful things that have happened will. So separating the right and wrong in our past, learning from those differences and applying what we learn to our future is what is going to help us along the way. But if we are just starting out in our walk with Christ, then what real past do we have to learn from seeing that everything is new? The answer to that is in God’s Word. We have a remarkable history through so many ages, so many differences, so many people, so many circumstances and so many examples of love and hatred that we should never cast it aside. God’s Word is here for us to learn from and to allow us to apply what we learn into our futures.

Christ gave us so many examples of what we should do that we need to stop and take notice. He did not have to have any relationship with a woman in order to display His love. He did not have to go there just to spell things out for us because the love that He has shown us is universal to all. In other words the love that He wants us to have should also be universal and not just to those one of two people we think deserve it!

That is where I praise my Lord and King again, for giving me a heart through which I can love others; He allows me to love others without having to go down the earthly ways of testing to see if it is real. I know my love is real and that is good enough for me because I know that God’s love is real towards us. I do know that I have made my fair share is mistakes in the past and I certainly try to learn from them but I am not hung up in making those mistakes haunt me – yes they have in the past, but through some very special people in my life I have learned more about God’s love than I have ever thought possible. To those very special people – I love you and I hope I show you that through what I do...

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you display love?

Are you displaying Christ’s love through what you do?